PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • List of Members
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
  • Podcast
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
Contacts
Address 1957 E St NW, Washington, DC 20052 adminponars@gwu.edu 202.994.5915
NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • List of Members
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
  • Podcast
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • Preparing for the Parliamentary Elections of 2021: Russian Politics and Society (Gel’man, Lankina, Semenov, Smyth, and more)

    View
  • Russians supported Putin’s moves in Crimea in 2014. Here’s what’s different in 2021

    View
  • Putin’s Rules of the Game: The Pitfalls of Russia’s New Constitution

    View
  • In the Caucasus, There Is a Peace Agreement but Not Peace

    View
  • Russia’s Niche Soft Power: Sources, Targets and Channels of Influence

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • Music and Politics in Contemporary Russia [Lipman Series 2021] April 12, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Gorbachev about the dynamic music scene in contemporary Russia, and how free Russian musicians are to make political statements.
  • How is the Russian Government Coping with Rising Food Prices? [Lipman Series 2021] March 15, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Anton Tabakh about rising food prices in Russia, and what they might mean for Russia's current and future stability.
  • The Communist Party of the Russian Federation: More Than Just Systemic Opposition? [Lipman Series 2021] March 5, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Felix Light and Nikolay Petrov about the contemporary Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including the divisions between its leadership and membership, its attitude toward Alexei Navalny, and why it might be more than just "systemic" opposition after all.
  • Internet Resources: Civic Communication and State Surveillance [Lipman Series 2021] February 16, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Andrei Soldatov and Tanya Lokot about the role of the internet in contemporary Russian politics, including both as a tool of the Russian opposition and as an instrument of the increasingly repressive Russian regime.
  • The Rise of Alexei Navalny's Political Stature and Mass Protest in Russia [Lipman Series 2021] February 1, 2021
    In the first PONARS Eurasia Podcast of 2021, Maria Lipman chats with Greg Yudin about the current protests taking place in Russia, and what Alexei Navalny's growing popular support means for the Putin regime.
  • Russian Social Policy in the COVID-19 Era [Lipman Series 2020] December 21, 2020
    In 2020’s final episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sarah Wilson Sokhey and Ella Paneyakh to discuss Russian social policy in the COVID-19 era, and public perception of Russia’s overall pandemic response.
  • Conscious Parenting Practices in Contemporary Russia [Lipman Series 2020] December 10, 2020
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Julia Yuzbasheva and Maria Danilova to learn more about the proliferation of "conscious parenting" practices in contemporary Russian society.
  • The Transformation of Belarussian Society [Lipman Series 2020] November 11, 2020
    In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Masha Lipman chats with Grigory Ioffe about the long-term and short-term factors that led up to the current protests in Belarus, and the ongoing transformation of Belarussian society.
  • Russian Lawmakers Adjust National Legislation to the Revised Constitutional Framework [Lipman Series 2020] October 26, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about ongoing changes to Russia’s national legislation based on the recently revised constitutional framework, and what these changes portend for the 2021 Duma election.
  • Russia's Regional Elections [Lipman Series 2020] September 25, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Graeme Robertson and Konstantin Gaaze about Russia’s September 13 regional elections and whether or not the Kremlin should be worried about upcoming Duma elections.
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Poland: EU Presidency as an Incentive to Reconsider Polish Identity?

  • February 4, 2012
  • Andrey Makarychev

 

(Article) In August 2011, Alexander Rahr, one of Germany’s key experts in post-Soviet affairs, claimed that Poland as the then EU presiding country had to get more involved in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus . His stance presumably expressed the prevailing expectations in the German political class. The logic of his “Go East” appeal was quite obvious: Due to the emergency situation in North Africa and Greece, Germany will not be able to streamline the EU’s efforts at “Ostpolitik” in the near future. Poland, Germany believes, should shoulder this function in its place given Warsaw’s co-authorship of the Eastern Partnership program. The reaction to Rahr’s appeal was quite cautious. Polish experts (like Jaroslaw Cwiek-Karpowicz) warned against lofty anticipations about the role their country may play in reshaping the EU’s Eastern policy, especially in the South Caucasus with its complicated security dynamics.

German analysts (like Stefan Meister) proposed putting a stronger accent on the German – Polish co-management of the Eastern policy by using already existing institutional playgrounds such as the Weimar triangle. Yet it turned out that with the deepening crisis of the Eurozone Poland has not only become increasingly hesitant to link its European identity with neighborhood policy, but also views the Berlin – Warsaw “special relations” as focused on rather intra-European than external affairs. The new Polish policy found its ultimate expression in the “Poland and the Future of Europe” speech by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski presented in Berlin on November 29, 2011. In his speech he hardly ever mentioned the Eastern Partnership (EaP) – a revealing omission. The implication being that by the end of the six months of Poland`s EU Presidency in December 2011, Polish diplomacy could not give any convincing proof for advancements in the Eastern partnership. Indeed, it is difficult to come up with success stories on the basis of developments in the six Eastern Partnership countries. Belarus was bracketed out of the project for political reasons at the EaP summit in September 2011, the Timoshenko trial in Kyiv alienated the Ukraine from Europe, and Moldova is struggling to overcome its prolonged political turmoil.

The political landscape in the Sout h Caucasus is even more complicated. The relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan are at a standstill with no solution in sight, while the government of Georgia – which was almost unanimously perceived as the most pro-Western throughout the post-Soviet space just a few years ago – is gradually losing its reputation in Europe. Against this background, it has been extremely difficult for Poland to “sell” the EaP program to the European political market. And that, in turn, made Warsaw reconsider its identity by drastically reducing its role of a bridge between the EU and Eastern Europe and strengthening the image of an inward-looking country striving for more institutional unity within the European Union and a stronger financial power for the EU authorities instead, while fully accepting the German leadership. The surprising Polish skepticism about the EaP seems to be paralleled by political discourses in many other EU countries. One of the most telling examples is Austria. Although in this country one can notice a rising interest in some EaP countries located primarily in the Black Sea region, Vienna does not seem to be strategically relying on a long-term cooperation with Poland within the EaP framework.

On the whole, there are quite skeptical sentiments about Poland`s ability to deal with external affairs effectively, and no major breakthrough was really anticipated – even if Lady Ashton does not show much success in Eastern policy either. Without high expectations how the EaP would perform, the Austrian discourse on the Polish EU Presidency is focused on issues that are considered fundamental for the European Union, such as the financial management of the Eurozone and the whole EUrope, the general prospects of the EU in crisis, and environmental protection. Needless to say that the two countries have shown completely different approaches to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Meanwhile, Poland`s call for solidarity voiced by Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski and later by Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in the above mentioned speech, in fact, have been noticed. And the praise for Poland`s conduct was mostly about facilitating connections between members and non-members of the Eurozone. It is not surprising that the criticism of Poland`s EU Presidency deals first of all with economic and environmental matters. At the same time Sikorski`s speech seems to be perceived in Austria also as a confession that Poland does not live up to the challenge to handle significant EU issues, in other words, that it is not the big EU country that it claimed to be – probably not quite the message the Polish Foreign Minister wanted to convey. This perception resulted in an unexpectedly fierce criticism stressing inter alia that Poland is incapable of achievements in Eastern Europe without a great power`s support.

Thus, Poland, though not very consistently, seems to concentrate more on the team play within the European Union – which may look a bit disappointing for some East European countries. It appears that in the long run the future of EaP will depend mostly on the efficiency of those institutional platforms within the EU of which Poland is a part, including the Weimar triangle and the Visegrad Group.

© The Institute for Human Sciences (IWM)

 

Secondary Author:
Victoria Vasilenko
Andrey Makarychev
Andrey Makarychev
Website | + posts
Visiting Professor

Affiliation

Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia

Links

University of Tartu (Bio)

Expertise

Russian Foreign and Security Policies, EU-Russian Relations, Foreign Policy Discourses, Regionalism and Federalism
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    The Minsk–Khabarovsk nexus: Ethical, performative, corporeal
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    Twigg: I worry about whether or not people are going to be willing to take Sputnik V in Russia
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    Culture as an Instrument
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    The Coronavirus and the Future of Liberalism
Related Topics
  • EU
  • Makarychev
  • Poland
Previous Article
  • In the News | Hовости

As Russia Prepares for Protests, New Media Battle the Old

  • February 3, 2012
  • Robert Orttung
View
Next Article
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Brookings Event: New START at One Year: Implementation and Looking to the Future

  • February 5, 2012
  • PONARS Eurasia
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Preparing for the Parliamentary Elections of 2021: Russian Politics and Society (Gel’man, Lankina, Semenov, Smyth, and more)

  • Robert Orttung
  • April 14, 2021
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russians supported Putin’s moves in Crimea in 2014. Here’s what’s different in 2021

  • Timothy Frye
  • April 13, 2021
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Putin’s Rules of the Game: The Pitfalls of Russia’s New Constitution

  • Brian Taylor
  • April 12, 2021
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

In the Caucasus, There Is a Peace Agreement but Not Peace

  • Georgi Derluguian
  • April 10, 2021
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russia’s Niche Soft Power: Sources, Targets and Channels of Influence

  • Marlene Laruelle
  • April 8, 2021
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

A Weak Link in NATO? Bulgaria, Russia, and the Lure of Espionage

  • Mark Kramer
  • April 6, 2021
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russia’s Weak Strongman: The Perilous Bargains That Keep Putin in Power

  • Timothy Frye
  • April 5, 2021
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Special Issue: Russia’s 2020 Constitutional Reform: The Politics of Institutionalizing the Status-Quo

  • Regina Smyth and William E. Pomeranz
  • April 2, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.